Recent content by The Blow Leprechaun

I've never heard of roasting vanilla. If you have a couple spare beans, it might be really interesting to try, but I'd want to have a backup just in case. Anise is very potent, I'd be careful with it. You can always add more, even at bottling if you make an extract or tea.

It'll be fine, just uglier than it could've been ;)

Beers with really high melanoidins run the risk of creating that "soy sauce" flavor you're noticing. I know on the Brewing Network Jamil warns about it several times, I think in particular when talking about doppelbocks. So you're probably not crazy. I don't know, I think Sam Adams is going...

I would replace all my vinyl tubing first thing - that stuff is so cheap anyway. I'd fill my buckets with bleach solution and let them sit for a while - I love starsan for its convenience, but if I really want to kill something, I'll still go with bleach. I'd give the bleach treatment to...

Not specific to a ship or the navy, but you could brew this guy.

Seems like quite a bit of crystal malt to me for a 2.5g batch, but that's a judgment call - it's certainly not unreasonable. I'd worry about WLP002 getting the job done on a barleywine, it just never seemed that strong an attenuator to me. I like the way it tastes, but I'd have something else...

I always thought honey malt smelled vaguely vinegary. That is all.

Not to mention that haze is associated with long term flavor instability. I think I read that in either Fix or Noonan... if someone actually wants a reference, I can go look for it.

I find I have to keep a scratch tally when I'm measuring by quarts, or I totally forget where I am and skip a few numbers. I also measured water into my kettle by 1/2 gallons with measuring tape so I can go back and check if I forget if I tallied or not (each 1/2 gallon adds about 3/4"!).

Looks pretty much like fallen krausen to me... and if it tastes fine, it probably is.

Haven't brewed the recipe, but I know Celis is famous for the "secret ingredient" chamomile.

It can really only be three things: 1) hydrometer error, 2) volume error, or 3) human error. Seems like your hydrometer is fine. How confident are you in your 6.25 gallons in the kettle estimation? Are you positive you didn't mis-weigh any of the grains? I always take my preboil gravity...

Clarity and color are not the same thing - even a dark beer can be opaque or hazy.

I got a wine refrigerator off craigslist for free because the internal temperature controller stopped working. Plugged it into an external one and it works fine for me.

I think Designing Great Beers is a rather limited resource - it's great if you've got it, but I wouldn't go out and buy it if your only goal is to get to know malt profiles... it only covers a handful, and not in any more detail than you can get online just about anywhere. DGB is a great...